Chapter 55: Small body; Huge potential

Penny was sitting in front of her front desk in her slightly messy room filled to the brim with Eevee dolls and accessories. In her hand was her phone, which she held close to her ear, and in front of her was her computer, which showed someone's point of view.

The person's point of view wasn't Kai's. It was Clive's. He was looking over a sea of trees while standing on a cliff. Amid the sea of trees was a single team star base.

"That base you're staring at right now is The fairy crew's base," Penny said. "You'll be facing off against Ortega, the Wings of Team Star."

"I see." Clive said. "And how strong is this team member?"

"He's the second strongest boss," Penny said, "If Kai were the one to fight him, I'd have asked him to earn a few gym badges before challenging him. Ortega… he's good. Really good. But that shouldn't be a problem, since you told me that you're much stronger than Kai is."

"Usually there's a gimmick with these team star members. Any tips?"

Penny frowned. "To be perfectly honest...I don't know, this time," Penny said.

"All right. I suppose I'll find out myself. I'll get back to you once I've finished infiltrating the base."

Penny sighed. "Okay," She said.

"Why are you sighing?"

"It's nothing. I'm just- thinking about a lot of things right now. About how Kai might betray us…"

"Don't worry. We'll get it done together."

"All right. I'm counting on you."

Penny turned off the phone and closed her eyes before sighing deeply once again.

"I have a feeling you're going to betray me too..." Penny mumbled. A bead of sweat rolled down her face. "If Kai never decided to go against the plan, I wouldn't have looked into you, but now, i know who you really are...Director Clive."

Penny put her hands on her desk before standing up. It was time to go to Uva Academy again. There was something she had to do.

Kai kept Charcadet in his arms, feeding him milk through a baby bottle, one Arven had lent to him, while standing between Arven and Aeon.

"So," Kai said, "You're saying that I have to challenge the next gym battle with my Charcadet?"

"Yes." Aeon said. "Your other Pokémon are close to evolving due to your training with that Bombirdier. If they evolve during battle, which is extremely likely, they will not listen to a single word you say."

"So what you're saying is that Charcadet's my only hope here for this coming gym battle…but..how am I supposed to fight with Charcadet? He's…well, he's a baby."

Once Charcadet pulled himself away from his bottle, Kai pulled the bottle away and lightly scratched the fire type's cheek. The tiny Pokémon and the trainer giggled together.

"As harsh as this sounds, he's also a Pokémon, at the end of the day," Aeon said. "He can fight. And if he can fight, he can train."

"I've gotta agree," Arven said. "I've had some Pokémon who hatched and were ready to fight just as they were born."

"Well he isn't ready yet!" Kai said, moving Charcadet away from Aeon and Arven like he was protecting him. "Right now he's a defenseless little baby! I'd say give him a couple of days to adjust to…y'know. Being alive. Besides-" Kai raised his eyebrows, noticing that charcadet's bottle was empty. He crouched down, letting Charcadet lie on the ground and took his backpack off. Kai then unscrewed the bottle as he pulled out a jar filled with milk. "Don't you think we should wait a day or two for Charcadet to be prepared?" Kai filled Charcadet's bottle with milk, screwed on the teat lid and let some milk fall onto his wrist. Once he felt that it was an appropriate temperature, he handed it to Charcadet, who sat and drank it. "I mean, we're not in a hurry, are we?"

"Wouldn't it be efficient for you to gain as many gym badges as soon as possible?" Aeon asked.

"But, we're not in a hurry, right?"

Aeon narrowed his eyes in annoyance, and the moment Arven saw this, he knew that a fight was going to happen between them. Arven decided to check his phone and walked off to the side. He had to know where the next Herba mystica was, anyway.

"It's the best course of action!" Aeon cried. "We should just move on towards the next Gym badge as soon as possib-"

"It's ThE BeSt CouRse Of ActIoN To JuSt MoVE oN torWards-" Kai mimicked Aeon's voice in a mocking tone. "Just calm down! Things're gonna be fine."

"Hey- I do not sound like that!"

"Don't yell in front of our baby!"

"WH-... OUR baby?!"

"Yes! And I think I'm gonna give this one a nickname… maybe… Aeon Jr."

"There will be nothing on this earth that will save you from me if you even dare to give that Charcadet that nickname!"

Kai raised an eyebrow. "Is that a threat, or are you flirting with me?"

"It's a THREAT."

Arven raised his eyebrows. "Wait-...why're…there two herba mystica suddenly at the academy..!?" He lightly gasped. If they were both in the academy, that meant that he could just get to them easily..!

"Why are you so against me calling him Aeon Jr?" Kai asked.

"B-Because-"

"Guys!"

Both boys spun to Arven.

"I found two of the herbs I'm looking for, and they're both at the academy! I've got an idea. You two stay and think about what Kai should do next, I'm going to go and snag those two herbs."

"Wait- what?" Aeon said. "How did they get to the Academy..?"

"I've got no idea, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth!" Arven pulled out Koraidon's Pokeball and threw it, releasing the red creature who roared. Arven sprinted to the red Pokemon and sat on top of it. "I'm going to head out- take care!"

"Wait- Arven!" Aeon cried.

Arven turned his head.

"Be careful, okay?!" Aeon cried.

"I'll be fine!" Arven shouted. He winked. "Don't tear each other's heads off, okay?! See ya!"

The two boys watched as Arven rode off.

"...I don't know how to feel about this," Aeon said, "Arven's rarely left my side… and he's gone now."

"Don't worry. You still have me!"

"Don't think you're off the hook," Aeon said, crossing his arms and closing his eyes. "I'm still annoyed at you."

"Whaaat? Aww.." Kai said. Kai put his hands on Aeon's cheeks and began rubbing them. "What's gotcha all mad, handsome?"

"The fact you were going to name Charcadet Aeon Jr annoyed me. The name 'Aeon' is a name you gave to me. I don't want you to give it to anyone else.." Aeon looked away and blushed a bit. "Yes, it's petty, but-"

"Aww- You're so PRECIOUUUS!" Kai began pulling on Aeon's cheeks before planting a kiss on his cheek. "Mmmwah!" Kai cried.

Aeon began to pout.

"I won't give Charcadet that name. Okay?"

"...Okay," Aeon mumbled.

"All right- Gimme a kiss so I know we made up," Kai said. Aeon turned, seeing Kai putting his own pointer finger on his smiling lips. The robot boy inched closer, and the two kissed each other on the lips and pulled away. Both boys smiled at each other and stared into each other's eyes.

Charcadet stared at the two boys, holding its bottle of milk and drinking it.

"Why're you rubbing your nose against mine...?" The boy whom he was nearly named after asked.

"Don't you know what an Eskimo kiss is?" Charcadet's trainer replied.

"Never heard of it… but it feels nice."

Charcadet smiled a bit.

"So, this is the new baby?"

Charcadet heard the sound of a girl talking to her. He spun around and saw three other Pokémon. One was a Tinkatuff, the second was a Pawmo, and the third, a Quaxwell.

"Yup." Pawmo said.

Charcadet began drinking his milk.

"Hiii new baby!" Tinkatuff said, waving her hand. "My name's Tinkatuff, you can think of me as your big sister-"

Charcadet spat its milk all over Tinkatuff's face. Then, the tiny fire type started to laugh at her as she stared in disbelief and shock.

"I'LL KILL HIM!"

Quaxwell moved in front of Tinkatuff before she could leap after Charcadet.

"Calm down..!" Quaxwell cried, holding Tinkatuff back as best as he could.

"I'LL RIP HIM APART AND THEN TURN HIS BONES INTO MY NEW HAMMER!"

Pawmo rushed over to the tiny fire type who clearly did not know what those words meant. He turned Charcadet around and wagged its tiny finger.

"You shouldn't do something like that to people," Pawmo said. "That's rude."

All four pokemon spun their heads to see a looming shadow in the shape of a Bombirdier swoop in. It landed right in front of the quartet.

"No, no, you should definitely do that again." Bombirdier said.

"Bombirdier?!" Pawmo cried.

"What's he doing here?" Tinkatuff said, pulling away from Quaxwell, who sighed in relief.

"I've been watching from afar the whole time, waiting for a chance to drop something on that... hm. He's not powerful enough to be called my trainer... Minion? I'll call him my Minion," Bombirdier said. "I would have already dropped a few things on his head. But that... That monster that he's with..." the flying/dark type shuddered as looked at Aeon, clearly distracted flirting with Kai and practicing Eskimo kisses. "I can't drop things on him in peace, knowing he's around."

Tinkatuff and Quaxwell exchanged a look of confusion.

"Whuddya mean, monster?" Quaxwell asked.

"You mean you don't see-...actually, I don't need to explain. No skin off my beak. Anyway- you guys do yourselves a favor and don't get in my way when I try grabbing our trainer's bag on the floor there. I'm gonna play a prank on him."

"What? Why?" Quaxwell asked.

"Because it's funny. Besides, this is the best time to do it, that monster's distracted."

"What makes you think we're going to sit by and just watch?" Quaxwell said, taking a step toward Bombirdier.

Bombirdier chuckled a bit. A green aura began to radiate around the flying type.

"Don't think I didn't expect you to do something. I took a bite of what remains of my super herbs. Y'know, the thing that made me so powerful that it took all three of you to bring me down..?"

Tinkatuff, Pawmo and Quaxwell all took a step back immediately. Quaxwell turned to Kai and Aeon, who were still playfully teasing one another.

Charcadet had no idea why the three of them were stepping back, he was rather confused.

"Don't even think about screaming or saying a word to...your trainer." Bombirdier said. "If you try to be a hero, I'm gonna swoop in and yoink you from the sky- take you real high up, and maybe, just maybe, when I drop you…I won't catch you. So move away, niiice and slow like. I gotta take that backpack quickly. Don't worry, he'll have it back…whenever I feel like dropping it on his head."

Enjoying the power trip, Bombirdier moved on with a devious smile, delighting in the looks of frustration on his ally's faces.

"That's right," Bombirdier said, "Don't forget who the real boss of this team is." After walking past Tinkatuff and Quaxwell, Pawmo and Charcadet stood between the flying type and his prize. Pawmo raised a protective arm in front of the Charcadet, who wasn't even paying attention anymore.

"Hey-.. little kid," Bombirdier said, looking directly at Charcadet.

"Hey-" Pawmo chimed. "Leave the baby out of this!"

"I'm not talking to you," Bombirdier said.

"He doesn't even know how to speak yet-"

"Quiet!" Bombirdier shouted. "Unless you want to go for a ride..? Last time your thunderbolts hurt quite a bit, but we both know it won't be enough to stop me from lifting you into the sky real high and dropping you."

Pawmo glared.

"Anyway- you. Tiny child. I don't appreciate you not paying attention to me. Are you zoning off?"

Charcadet looked up at Bombirdier. The flying type smirked.

"Listen up, kid. I'm the boss here, and I'm the most powerful. So you better learn to respect me. Got it?"

Charcadet looked down back at his bottle and began drinking it again.

"..How dare-...little twerp like you not noticing how powerful I am is insulting. I'm going to pass down an important lesson to you as your senior. I'm going to teach you…why you should fear me."

With a swift movement of its talons, Bombirdier yoinked the bottle out of the baby's hands.

For a moment, Charcadet just stared blankly at the floor, then up at Bombirdier.

"That'll teach ya'." The Bombirdier with a smirk. "You can have this back when I feel like giving it to you. Go ahead. Start cryin-"

An explosive aura of flames erupted from the Charcadet's body without warning. Every Pokemon in the vicinity gasped loudly as an incredibly violent and strong wind blew against them. Aeon and Kai both turned, noticing the sudden explosion of power coming from Charcadet.

The winds were powerful enough to send Pawmo, Quaxwell and Tinkatuff flying toward the trees around them. Pawmo grabbed onto a right before he flew by it, reaching his hand out to catch Quaxwell by the leg. Quaxwell used all of his upper strength to reach and grab the airborne Tinkatuff's hand and caught her. All three of the Pokémon were hanging on the tree like they were a flag flying helpelssly in the wind.

"What's with this power..!?" Quaxwell cried.

"I don't know!" Tinkatuff cried. "I-I thought he was just a baby!"

Charcadet's eyes were burning bright. He took a step forward, and the ground below his feet began to melt under the excruciating heat it exerted.

"D-Don't you look at me like that..!" Bombirdier took a step back. "I'm- I'm the boss- I'm the leade-"

Charcadet moved so fast that no one could see him- it was as though he teleported. When he next appeared- his head had slammed against Bombirdier's stomach.

Spit flew out of Bombirdier's mouth before he was sent flying, crashing back-first right onto a tree- the one next to the tree Quaxwell, Tinkatuff and Pawmo were hanging onto. Bombirdier's unconscious body slid toward the ground- he was left sitting unconcious with smoke eminating from his body.

As soon as Charcadet looked at his bottle, the explosive fiery aura faded, and he went to go drink it with a happy look on his face.

"He-... he defeated Bombirdier…" Kai said, clearly shocked.

"…With a single blow.." Aeon said.

The boys didn't say anything else to each other for a while- because it was incredibly obvious: Charcadet had the potential to become Kai's strongest Pokémon.